Exit 9
Authors: Brett Battles
Tags: #Fiction, #Thrillers, #General, #Thriller, #flu, #endoftheworld, #Mystery, #Plague, #conspiracy, #Suspense
Table of Contents
EXIT 9
Exit Nine
Book Description
From thriller and suspense master Brett Battles comes
Exit Nine
, the second book in the Project Eden thriller series.
Before, it was just a test, a little demonstration to see if the virus worked. It did, and so much better than its creators could have ever hoped.
But the testing phase is over. It’s time for Project Eden to take the next step. If its members have their way, humanity is about to get a reboot.
It’s up to Daniel Ash and the others in the outnumbered resistance to keep the Project from severely downsizing mankind. But can their small force succeed in the face of a plan decades in the making?
The human race had better hope so, because if Ash and his friends can’t…
Praise for
Sick,
the first Project Eden thriller:
“
Sick
didn’t just hook me. It hit me with a devastating uppercut on every primal level—as a parent, a father, and a human being.” — Blake Crouch, author of
Run
“
Sick
is a gem of an outbreak story that unfolds like a thriller movie and never lets up, all the way to the last page. Absolutely my favorite kind of story!” — John Maberry,
New York Times
bestselling author
“
Sick
not only grabs you by the throat, but by the heart and gut as well, and by the time you finish you feel as if you've just taken a runaway train through dangerous territory. Buy this book now. You won't regret it.”—Robert Browne, author of
The Paradise Prophecy
“Like a fever,
Sick
makes you sweat and keeps you up all night, wondering what the hell is happening. It'll make your heart race like someone shot you with an EpiPen. You think Battles was badass before? He just cranked it up to 500 joules. CLEAR!”—PopCultureNerd.com
“
Sick
is Brett Battles at his best, a thriller that also chills, with a secret at its core that's almost too scary to be contained within the covers of a book.” — Tim Hallinan, author of the Edgar-nominated
The Queen of Patpong
ALSO BY BRETT BATTLES
T
HE
J
ONATHAN
Q
UINN
T
HRILLERS
Novels
SHADOW OF BETRAYAL (U.S.)
/
THE UNWANTED (U.K.)
THE RETURNED (Spring 2012)
Novellas
Short Stories
JUST ANOTHER JOB – A Jonathan Quinn Story
OFF THE CLOCK – A Jonathan Quinn Story
THE ASSIGNMENT — An Orlando Story
T
HE
L
OGAN
H
ARPER
T
HRILLERS
T
HE
P
ROJECT
E
DEN
T
HRILLERS
EXIT 9
S
TAND
A
LONES
Novels
NO RETURN
(January 2012)
Short Stories
For Younger Readers
T
HE
T
ROUBLE
F
AMILY
C
HRONICLES
YOU’RE IN BIG, MR. TROUBLE (Late 2012)
EXIT 9
Brett Battles
A PROJECT EDEN THRILLER
Book 2
What Has Come Before
I
T HAS BEEN
nearly eight months since humanity was rocked with the news of the Sage Flu outbreak in the Mojave Desert of California. The strain was particularly deadly, seeming to kill everyone who became infected. But before it could turn into an even larger problem, it mysteriously lost its potency and disappeared.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief. They talked of remaining vigilant, but in most people’s minds, mankind had dodged a bullet.
If only they’d known the truth, that this was merely a test performed by a group dedicated to giving the human race a restart, and that when this group moved out of the testing phase, things could become much, much worse.
There was, however, a band of people who did know the truth, who had dedicated themselves to trying to keep this horrific plan from becoming reality. But in the months since the test outbreak in the desert, they had made far too little progress.
Unfortunately for them, and for all of humanity, the ones behind the plan had not been experiencing the same problem. They’d been busy.
Very busy.
1
I.D. MINUS 41 DAYS
“This just came in.”
Matt Hamilton took the piece of paper from the communications specialist and looked at the message.
MO KO EB PT TI HU JN RN MU ER UG YS UC ZR JZ CZ CN EN TS LV NA HS CG GU HC DV DO MO JN OB HN GU PH OM UI BC WF CU OF SR HP OV JG GJ TL OK YS XT KV XD ML CA
“Have you decoded it?” he asked.
An uneasy nod.
“What?”
“It’s from Heron.”
Heron. Their deepest mole, tasked with only one job so as to preserve his cover. A fail-safe.
A second sheet of paper containing the translation was held out.
It’s a go. Sometime in the next seven weeks. Project Eden calls it Implementation Day.
Best location BB n of sixty-six. Sci fac.
The paper slipped from Matt’s hands and fell to the floor. “Dear God.”
2
I.D. MINUS 27 DAYS
T
HE COLD WAS
unrelenting, its fierce bite intensified by the wind that sliced across the ice and snow. How anyone could ever choose to live above the Arctic Circle, Sawyer would never understand. Sure, the work done in most of the research stations that had been built this far north was important, but damn, the weather was brutal.
Of course, it didn’t help that he and Napoli were not ensconced inside a building, sucking down hot coffee, and being warmed by heated air. Instead, they were lying prone on top of a ridge, under the near constant night sky of the approaching Arctic winter, as they observed the Brule Institute Outpost.
This was the fourth instillation they’d checked in the last eleven days—one in northern Greenland, and the other two on individual islands in a winding line stretching into Canada. Their current location was Yanok Island, an otherwise uninhabited piece of rock roughly five miles in diameter.
Sawyer and Napoli had been there for twenty-two hours, arriving on a modified, cold-weather fishing boat. They had anchored in a cliff-ringed bay on the side of the island opposite the station. They climbed to the top with the help of an old land slide, and not too far from there they had found a cutout in a small hill—not quite a cave, more an overhang that had kept most of the ground underneath clear from snow. Using tarps and some other gear they’d brought along, they walled it off, and created a heated shelter, complete with two cots, a hot plate, and a two-way, encrypted radio.
So far, the only report they’d sent in was similar to the ones they’d been transmitting since their assignment began:
No sign of unusual activity.
“Number seven just came outside,” Napoli said, looking through their tripod-mounted, night-vision binoculars. Over the course of their observations, they had given a number to each person from the outpost they’d seen, identifying them by some unique aspect of their gear—patches, color, type of boots.
Sawyer lifted his head a fraction of an inch as if he could see the man as easily as Napoli had, but at this distance in the darkness he had a hard time even identifying the main door.
Napoli moved the binoculars. “He’s heading up to the Gazebo.”
Like the numbers they’d given the people, they’d developed a shorthand to describe the facility. The Gazebo was a circular outbuilding, considerably smaller than the main structure. According to the specs they’d been given prior to arriving on the island, it served as the station’s warehouse.
Within the same group of papers was a description of the outpost’s purpose. The Brule Institute was a scientific research organization loosely associated with the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Their goal here was the same as those of most of the other places Sawyer and Napoli had checked—monitoring the effects of global warming on the arctic ice pack.
Napoli leaned back and rubbed his eyes. “He’s inside now.”
“You want me to take over for a while?” Sawyer asked.
“No. I’m still good.” Napoli looked back through the binoculars. “Could use one of those energy bars, though. As long as it’s not frozen solid.”
“I’m only here to serve you,” Sawyer said.
